Donald Trump defies gravity. And so I guess he has to be Donald Trump. It's gotten him so far. Mark Shields More Quotes by Mark Shields More Quotes From Mark Shields Donald Trump is sounding the same theme he has sounded since May or June of 2015. Mark Shields trumpjunemay The Democrats have tried the war against women in the past. It didn't really have that much traction. Mark Shields democratwarpast The Democrats are now an upscale party. Mark Shields democratparty The Democrats have an economic message that is directed at people at the lower end. That has been their cornerstone. The Republicans has been more upscale. Mark Shields republicanmessagespeople Mitt Romney was the man who stood up to Donald Trump early, hard, never wavered. Mark Shields trumphe-manmen The single worst campaign slogan I have ever heard, is Hillary's Clinton, "I'm with her," it means nothing. It absolutely means nothing to anybody. I mean, it's about appealing - and it says nothing about anybody's life, about the country. Mark Shields clintonmeancountry Everyone has to take Donald Trump seriously, and I think that's what we're seeing. Mark Shields trumpseeingthinking The problem is that every study I'm aware of, which is probably not that many, has indicated that a dollar spent in preparation and avoidance of natural disasters is worth $15 that is spent in relief. But there's no political payoff for preparation. So, who benefits? I mean, the governor or senator or the president? Bill Clinton at Oklahoma City, his performance there helped him enormously. And there really hasn't been any regulation that would, in fact, interfere with environmental disaster. Mark Shields politicalpreparationmean I think Democrats ought to be concerned, that the party has become almost prideful about the college-educated vote that it's getting, the support that Hillary Clinton is getting against Donald Trump. Mark Shields partycollegethinking I do think that Republicans are flirting with their tax cut, which has always been the narcotic of Republicans, that they in fact have to at some point, with any remote pretense of candor, abandon any pretense of a balanced budget.I mean, they talk about - because they are going to finance the tax cut by tax cuts. That's how they're going to do it. And I do think that the will is there right now in the Congress to act. I think they will be as close to unity as you will see on Capitol Hill this year. Mark Shields cuttingmeanthinking America is Republican until 5:00 or 6:00 at night. Mark Shields republicannightamerica [Donald Trump] stood up and he said, you finally have a president, you finally have a president. I am the future.And what did he get? Hosannas and huzzahs and genuflection. It was a total takeover of the conservative movement. Mark Shields conservativemovementpresident The strength of Donald Trump as a candidate - and I'm not in any way defending moral convictions or anything of the sort - was that he says what he means, you know where he stands. Mark Shields convictionmoralmean Democrats can have a different version of the line, or they can just say, no, we are the party of international peace and activism, and we're the party that's going to have a civilized capitalism. Mark Shields linespartydifferent I'm sure little Marco [Rubio] didn't think it would stick. I'm sure crooked Hillary [Clinton] didn't think it would stick. These labels do have a certain power to them. And so we will see how it plays out. Mark Shields labelsplaythinking It's both strategic, to get people's minds off other things, and to pick an internal enemy. It's part of [Donald Trump's] psychodynamics to always care about his press coverage intensely. He's more interested in that than anything else. Mark Shields mindpeopleenemy It's interesting how identity politics and Ann Coulter-style tactics have now blossomed. But they were always there in CPAC. Mark Shields identity-politicsstyleinteresting Lee Atwater,[Ronald] Reagan's strategist, had no patience for CPAC, because he thought they were sort of wild and immature, basically. Mark Shields strategistno-patienceimmature The final thing the Tea Party had was, they fed into the philosophy that Donald Trump now embodies. So they had a different view of how the world should be governed. And so they had a lot of things that we didn't appreciate going for them as time went by. Mark Shields partyviewsphilosophy I do think what the Tea Party also had was Obamacare and the unpopularity of that, at least at the time. And so whether there is something that is equally unpopular and equally galvanizing that is almost self-destructive from the administration, that's another factor that we will wait and see. Mark Shields partyselfthinking
